


Legacy Characters and Their Importance

by timahina



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 00:11:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16843231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timahina/pseuds/timahina
Summary: Essay on the Legacy Characters in Arc-V and their importance / impact to the characters within the show.





	Legacy Characters and Their Importance

**Author's Note:**

> Eh, figured might as well save this meta post from tumblr since I was rather proud of this one.

We all know and love the characters of YGO. Ever since GX (the first spinoff) it’s always been a thing to want to incorporate the previous show characters in the newest one and that has been done before.

  * Grandpa Mutou in GX hanging out with Judai and gang on their field trip to Domino City
  * Saiou meeting up with Seto Kaiba
  * Judai having a duel with Yugi at the end of the series
  * Pegasus in GX
  * DMG dueling Judai
  * BBT
  * Dark Magician, Blue Eyes, DMG, Red Eyes, and Neos as legendary monsters in zexal



The little teaser Easter eggs put there and we all went fucking nuts and loved them all. GX and Arc-V are unique in the sense that both have characters from previous series in the anime but AV was the first to use them for plot related reasons rather than fan service.

Now, let’s not be blind and say there isn’t a little bit of fan service in them returning. Jack and Crow are incredibly popular characters in 5Ds, same goes with Kaito. Edo and Asuka I’m more iffy on their popularity but that’s more because I am unfamiliar with GX fandom (even Edo’s VA was surprised that his character returned). For the most part, they did pick popular characters to bring back. And better yet, they weren’t the protagonist as in previous incarnations (BBT).

Now I know what you’re thinking: “in GX, they brought Grandpa and Pegasus (who was in multiple episodes). So technically, GX did it first!”

Hm, “technically” yes. But I’m gonna reject that argument on the basis that the returning characters in GX were in fact fanservice. They did nothing to enhance or change the plot. In fact, take them out and nothing changes. Literally all of it was due to fan service. Now, I’m not gonna rag on GX for this since it was the first spin-off series and they were trying to find a rhythm. Making obvious references such as bringing back minor / familiar characters made sense as they were trying to attract an audience.

By the time AV came around, they have an audience as well as YGO formula and so **_had_** to have a plan to bring back previous characters.

Here, I will discuss the point of each character and their importance to the plot and perhaps. How they could’ve been improved upon.

Now that that’s settled, let’s begin.

  * **Jack Atlas**



Jack in AV is different from 5Ds Jack. In 5Ds, Jack was ashamed of being poor and from Satellite, running away and stealing Stardust Dragon from Yusei to become king and play puppet to the Tops if it meant escaping poverty. Only after losing to Yusei does he start to accept his past as a part of himself.

Now, in AV it’s a different story. Jack is proud of his background, never shirks from it. In fact, he is all about entertainment and is a PROUD individual. Since there is no Yusei or Satellite, there is no reason for him to be ashamed or to run away. It’s still virtually the same tho, he still fights his way to the top and becomes King. Same basic story and he still has the same personality.

Here, he acts like a mentor to Yuya and forces him to examine his ideology and how to go about it. Jack calls Yuya arrogant for preaching to the crowd before he’s done anything like he’s self-important. As much as I love Yuya, Jack has a point. He hasn’t done anything, he doesn’t identify with these people and is simply telling them what they believe is wrong. Yuya is able to truly polish his entertainment and speak to the crowd and his opponent upon dueling Jack and form his OWN brand of entertainment dueling rather than regurgitating his father’s words.

It’s a really crucial point in Yuya’s development, his relationship with Jack. But also, Jack affects another character. Reira. Reira has only heard positive things from very few characters: Reiji, Yuya, and Tatsuya.

Tatsuya told him he was like Reiji which made him happy since he was being compared to Reiji, who he heavily respects. Reiji encourages him as best he can, telling him to keep up the good work. Yuya is the only that kinda wants to shelter Reira and he’s the only one really trying to keep him from danger. Jack on the other hand, also encourages Reira and tells him that he wants to see his strength.

He gives Reira confidence that really no other character can because Jack sees a lot of himself in Reira. He too grew up with nothing and built himself up. Reira grew up in a war torn country, also having nothing and had to fend for himself - protect himself as Jack did. If Jack was able to get out and become the strongest duelist in Synchro Dimension, then it’s possible for Reira to be strong. It’s after this that Reira doesn’t want to be weak and apologizes to Tsukikage for wanting him to lose and tells Reiji that he wants the Synchro Dimension to know they are Lancers and they are there to fight against Academia and defend this dimension and their home.

Jack is instrumental to the development of characters such as Yuya and Reira who are major players to the plot as we all shouldn’t forget here. Hell, fucking Sergey too. He got through to him where Yuya couldn’t which inspired Yuya and made him understand what he was trying to say.

Also, he provides a good example of the mobility of Synchro Dimension. Anyone can move up - it is possible to get from the bottom to the very top from sheer strength. Jack comes from Commons (AV version of Satellite) which is the 99% and is now King, a Tops and they even proclaim him as that - that he belongs to them so long as he remains King. Once Sam (remember the bellhop kid?) talks to Jack in the elevator and even sees Yuya use the tuner card - he really realizes what Jack was trying to tell him.

Jack kinda forces Yuya to grow up and acts more like the stereotypical rival role in this season than Reiji (whose VA was hella busy and character didn’t talk as much but Reiji isn’t really the traditional rival so that’s another essay). Jack makes sense in this world and is necessary to the development of other’s. He’s.. kinda a plot device. An enjoyable and well-incorporated one tho.

  * **Crow Hogan**



Oh Crow.

Basically the same story. Grew up on the streets and poor all his life. But no Yusei or Team Satisfaction or Martha. His focus though is more on the opposite side of the coin of the Synchro Dimension. Whereas Jack shows the mobility of this society and how it’s technically possible for anyone to rise through the ranks, Crow thinks of Jack as a traitor who turned his back on the Commons and changed nothing. Crow doesn’t have any belief in the corrupt system.

His character is important to Shingo, Yuya, and Shun in terms of their development. Crow himself doesn’t really development but he’s key to others. For example. Shingo. Let’s talk about Shingo.

This boy is an arrogant idiot. He’s very high and mighty and really remains that way for the majority of the series. But this mentality changes when Crow breaks his duel disk against BB which saves him from being carded and Crow sacrifices himself to save him. Shingo is humbled at long last due to Crow’s selflessness. That’s a big turning point of his character and finally brings humanity and realism to this comedic relief character. It’s suddenly not all about him - he’s not the center of the world. He even prays to Crow’s card and for an arrogant character like Shingo, he seems to put Crow on a higher pedestal than himself. He thinks highly of Crow (as a person) and is probably the only character he has that opinion of in the series.

As for Yuya, he makes Yuya realize that… his way of being happy is not the ONLY thing to be happy. That whole “food vs smiles” where Yuya thinks smiles are most important whereas Crow thinks food is most important.

Neither are wrong, ya need both. Yuya is kinda forced to see things from another point of view. To Crow and everyone like him, smiles are nice and all but… they broke and starving. So food brings a filling meaning to them rather than someone telling them to smile. It makes Yuya examine himself and part of the course to not be so stubborn (or as Jack puts it, ‘arrogant’) about his ideals.

During the chaos where Commons were overthrowing Tops and that kid was crying on the street, Crow went to comfort the kid (always the sweetheart) and was saying how they were the same. Nothing would change by reversing the position, meaning Shinji’s take was wrong. Shinji isn’t wrong to rebel against the oppression, but wanting to oppress the oppressors isn’t the take to go. He’s seeing it only in black and white and not seeing from another point of view.

Yuya had to think of another way to bring the City together rather than just blindly saying that smiles will make everything better. Meaning he had to communicate… which is the whole point of the food vs smiles thing. Ya gotta communicate what’s most important and get that done first instead of assuming.

Even if they overthrew Tops, the system - SOCIETY was the problem. Big lesson there.

Lastly, Crow’s effect on Shun. They have the shortest interaction, one duel. And this duel is the turning point of Shun’s development i.e. where it begins to change his behavior for the better.

Before this, Shun was angry and vengeful and full of rage and did indeed take that out on everyone (see season 1 for proof). During his duel with Crow, Tanner said that they’ve known bully guys like him and they don’t like people like him. Meaning that… just because bad things happened to you, doesn’t give you license to be an ass. Crow and Shun bond over their mutual love of children (whether you believe that is up to you, personally I don’t and I won’t lie about that but that’s not the point). The point is, this wakes Shun up that he’s not the only one who has suffered and Crow is the first one to make him mellow out because he sees how similar they both are. He calms down after this and begins to be far less full of rage and more willing to work with the Lancers because he’s learning it’s not Shun vs The Rest of the World and he has no right to take it out his anger on them.

I wouldn’t call Crow a plot device like Jack but… he’s really static.. no growth or development but instead there to highlight other characters (mainly Yuya Shun and Shinji and later - Shingo) and help them along their journey.

  * **Kaito Tenjo**



Kaito is unique in the sense that… he’s the only one from zexal to return. His backstory is really different too. Here, he goes to the same duel school as Yuto and Shun and is Shun’s rival. After Academia invaded, he joined the Resistance but later abandoned them after his family was carded. We never see Dr. Faker or Haruto so family is… vague.

His character is an angry and vengeful duelist, carding (effectively slaying) all his opponents indiscriminately and is just him against the world. Sound familiar, right?

Yea, it’s Shun. It sounds like a repeat but actually, it’s a little different. When Shun meets up with him, he’s changed now. Shun is no longer that vengeful loner who is fighting this war all by himself as Kaito is going about it now. In fact, when Shun fights him - it’s not really Kaito he’s fighting.

If anything, he’s fighting himself. He’s fighting his own anger and grief. Him losing the duel doesn’t matter, it was never about winning the duel. It was about getting _through_ to Kaito. When Shun loses the duel, Kaito is about to card him but instead spares him and leaves.

Shun faced his vengeful nature - a mirror of his past self and overcame it. When we see Kaito again, he talks about how importance comrades are and defends Yushou’s honor. Now it may seem that it come pretty quickly and while it did and I’m not really gonna defend that except in one aspect… it would’ve been a repeat of Shun. And also, it would’ve “taken attention” from other characters. Like Sayaka, another character tied to him.

She was one of the reasons he didn’t card Shun - most likely since she saw enough of her comrades carded and it no doubt traumatized her and this poor girl definitely going through some PTSD. We can infer enough that it made him re-evaluate his actions and what he was about to do and see how far he’s fallen (this is where fanon can fill in and whatnot) and when he sees her again, she gives him her card since she can’t be there in person but she still wants to fight alongside them (doing her best and all).

I wouldn’t say a lot of Kaito affects Yuya but more shows how motivation through rage and vengeful isolates into near self-destruction as it nearly did with both Shun and Kaito. And after this, most of what Kaito does is trying to save other characters and there’s not much in terms of motivation.

  * **Edo Phoenix**



The GX kids have the funniest change in the sense that their backstories are really different. Originally, Edo was a Pro-Duelist who was searching for his father’s killer and got mixed up with a cult. Here it’s… simpler. He was an Academia student chosen to be a leader of the invasion in Heartland and is conflicted about the ideals between Academia / Professor (what he’s been brainwashed to believe) and what Yushou was teaching him.

We meet him as he’s already conflicted and torn between these two decisions and given the fact that he’s a child soldier, it’s a hard thing to shake off and make an easy decision. How does he betray what he knows for something that makes him happy?

Yuya describes Edo like a pendulum, swaying between Professor’s ideals and Yushou’s ideal and there’s a bit of a tug of war there. Edo believes in Professor’s ideals of uniting the dimensions and creating a utopia. However.. how can he really do that through this violence?

During Yuya’s first duel with Edo, Yuto immediately discards the ideals he heard from Ruri (which were given to her by Yushou) and that results in a tie. Yuya fails to communicate with Edo because he didn’t commit to his ideals that he finally accepted after his time spent in the Synchro Dimension. It doesn’t go well and when Yuya duels against Edo again, he fully commits to his ideals and finishing what his father started and teaches Edo the importance of egao. That no peace can be achieved by violence - only by _communicating_ and Yuya communicates through his entertainment dueling, which Edo listened to.

This is to show how Yuya is meant to combat Academia or even the darkness inside of him (later known as Zarc). It’s easy to fight and be violent but Yushou’s method is _hard. Peace_ is hard. And Edo is meant to show how Yuya isn’t just relying on blind faith when Edo himself sheds his Academia rank and decides to lay down all their arms and rebuild Heartland since this war is senseless. If Yuya can do this in Heartland and bring peace there - where the war started - then he can touch the hearts of those in the Fusion Dimension as well.

I almost think this role would’ve been better served with maybe Kaiser Ryo but that might have been a repeat of his character which is never any fun and Edo filled it very well and was really enjoyable. There are a few… tweaks to his character that I would’ve done.

  * **Asuka Tenjoin**



Asuka’s the hardest one to talk about to be perfectly honest. She never has a clear cut role.

Her story here is that she’s a student of Academia. Once a friend of hers tells her of the horrors they committed in Heartland, they run away and Asuka watches her get carded before her very eyes and in that moment, she realizes that this girl was right and Academia acts dishonorably. They don’t see a distinction between friend or foe, everyone stands in their way.

Asuka immediately meets Yushou (who got transported to the Fusion Dimension by Edo) and becomes his student. Uh… after this, it’s a little hard to know what her character was supposed to be?

I commend them for bringing back a female character. And I like the direction they were going with in her duel against Yuri where it almost hints that he was jealous that her dueling skills brought her love and admiration among her peers whereas his talent only brought fear and isolation (lol nice foreshadowing to Zarc tbh…) and that’s why it seemed like he was particularly harsh against her. But there’s just… a disconnect with her role here.

For example, her being Yushou’s first student in Academia, it would’ve made more sense for her to duel Dennis rather than Kaito. One Academia student against another, one “traitorous” student vs a loyal student. It would’ve made a great contrast since it would show how much Asuka escaped Academia’s control and tries to save Dennis. (I liked the Dennis vs Kaito duel but… I woulda preferred Dennis vs Asuka.)

Asuka doesn’t really steal the spotlight from any of the existing characters but she doesn’t bolster any other character. Though I’d like to believe that in the Yuri vs Asuka duel, it was supposed to be what I said up above which is interesting (tho I still am slightly bitter she got carded after not doing a lot but eh… that’s life.)

In any case, I like her story that she’s an Academia defector and believes in Yushou’s words and wants to fight against Academia using the ideals of peace and escaping the brainwashing that her and her peers had suffered through. There is an interesting story and character arc there and I can’t say this is a disservice to her since she technically is given more and does more here than she does in all that I’ve seen so far in GX so…. C'est la vie.

  * **Conclusion**



Now, it’s possible to create a new characters for these positions but truth to be told… it’s much easier to bring back older characters and put them in the mentor / foil roles and is honestly less bullshit. You don’t have to create new investment for the audience because the investment is already there. The audience doesn’t need to be convinced or brow beaten for several eps to care about these characters. You don’t have to create new character arcs, development, or really anything by bringing back old characters but putting them in mentor roles or even foils actually helps the story because now you don’t have to waste so much time focusing on other characters and still maintain the focus on the characters you want.

I wasn’t forced to sit through episodes of backstory with King WhatHisFace after he duels Yuya and have to see this man be humbled - nah, it’s Jack. I know how this goes. I don’t need to sit through eps of backstory with ANY of the returning characters - all we got was a few minutes of attention to get their minimal backstory (and their own development was tiny if that - I’d call it non-existent) and the rest of their time, we got them supporting the characters originating from this series. Also truth to be told, you have new characters like Chojiro, Shinji, Grace, Gloria, Dennis, etc. to fill in the void of characters who are similar to the returning characters and have the development that they don’t. It’s not that the returning characters outshine the ones from this series, they really don’t. The show did not give them the substantial enough focus - everything these characters did was to support another, not for their own development. The fans may have given them a lot of love and attention but ya can’t really blame them because these are popular characters who RETURNED with new backstories and provided new AUs and bonds and all sorts of possibilities.

AV committed the usual YGO crime of having too many characters but it could’ve been a lot worse had they been force to try and create backstories and redemption arcs and development for all these new characters instead of… just doing a shortcut and bringing back old characters and honestly enhanced their universe by incorporating legacy characters (AU versions of them anyways) and providing really new ideas. By changing up their backstories (and by changing, it was more like tweaking), we were spared the obvious questions:

Where are the other protags and why aren’t they getting off their lazy asses and helping? (which is a problem I have while watching GX cuz Yugi and Kaiba keep getting mentioned and shown and they just… do nothing lol. Or even in BBT which confirmed canon in 5Ds and never mind the amount of plot holes that opened up.) AV saw those plot holes and said nope. Just decided to not even bother and created new things for these beloved characters.

Most importantly… people were gonna get mad no matter what. There’s no such thing as pleasing everyone. I do sincerely recall everyone losing their shit (positively) cuz the one thing everyone has wanted since forever finally happened. That’s why crossovers keep happening, people do legit like them and this one created a new world where it’s possible for this to occur. You can’t have your cake, eat it, and then get mad that you were given cake that you’ve been bitching about wanting for 20 years.

AV did them well. Not perfectly but the legacy characters were given enough love in terms of their revision and written well enough to be at worst, passable. It still was the first YGO series to do this and to this magnitude, especially to the spin-off series (since the one given attention is usually the original).


End file.
